Brigit and Self both say they’ll help you build your credit fast, but how do they compare? An analysis.
If you want to raise your credit score quickly and build credit fast, there are a lot of options out there. It can be hard to tell the difference between so many credit-building tools, so let us compare two of them for you: Brigit’s Credit Builder and Self’s Credit Builder Loan.
Both Brigit and Self build your credit score by taking out a loan in your name and making on-time monthly loan payments to create a positive payment history for you. That positive payment history — which counts for 35 percent of your credit score — is reported to the major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion.
Where Brigit and Self diverge is:
- The length—or term—of the loan,
- How much you pay each month,
- Whether interest, administrative fees, and cancellation fees are added on, and
- Whether extra features are included.
Although Brigit’s Credit Builder and Self’s Credit Builder Loan may seem similar at first, there are some huge differences when it comes to affordability and accessibility.
Brigit is proud to be the lowest-cost option with monthly loan payments as low as $1 a month, which are returned to you after your loan is fully repaid. All you need to get Credit Builder is a Brigit Plus membership for $9.99 a month. At $25 per month, Self’s lowest-cost plan means you’ll be paying at least $10 more per month than with Brigit.
Brigit’s Credit Builder doesn’t charge any interest, administrative fees, or cancellation fees, while Self charges all three.
Brigit also offers many additional tools with your Brigit Plus subscription, as compared with Self, which doesn’t offer any extras.
Let’s look at these differences in more detail.
Loan term and monthly payments
Brigit’s Credit Builder takes out a 1-year loan and has an affordable monthly payment amount that you can choose, so you can start building credit on your terms. Once you become a Brigit Plus member for $9.99 a month, you can contribute as little as $1 a month in savings towards your loan. When the loan is complete, all of your monthly savings contributions are returned to you in full.
Self, a financial technology app, offers four different credit-building plans, with two options each for 1-year and 2-year loans. You can choose to pay either $48 or $150 a month for their 1-year loans, or $25 or $35 a month for their 2-year loans.
At the end of the loan term, some of your monthly payments are returned to you, but Self keeps anywhere from $46 to $146 of your payments, depending on which plan you choose.
Interest, administrative fees, and cancellation fees
Brigit’s Credit Builder charges no interest, no administrative fees, and no cancellation fees.
Self’s Credit Builder Loan charges between 12 percent and 15 percent interest on your loan, depending on the plan. They also charge a $9 administrative fee upfront, and a $5 cancellation fee if you end your plan early.
Extra features
Brigit’s Credit Builder comes with a ton of extra features that are included in your Brigit Plus subscription. You get extra features such as instant cash up to $250, a full credit report, credit monitoring, up to $1 million in identity theft protection, and budgeting tools.
Self’s Credit Builder Loan does not come with any additional features.
Brigit’s Credit Builder offers you the best bang for your buck; let it help you build your credit when you sign up here today.
